The Ignored Contender: A Select Annotated Bibliography of the Cuban Autonomist Party (1878–1898) by Rafael Tarragó is a rare gem. Good old-fashioned annotated bibliographies are increasingly hard to find and yet remain among the most useful entry points into scholarly topics available today. Tarragó's guide to the history of the Cuban Autonomist Party is the form at its best. Covering over 300 primary and secondary sources, it is safe to say that the “ignored contender” is ignored no more. Bringing an important chapter of Cuban history out of the shadows with authority, Tarragó's volume, which contains the seeds of dozens and dozens of dissertation projects and book manuscripts, is a gift to scholars.
In his introduction, Tarragó defends the need to draw scholarly attention to the history of the Cuban Autonomist Party, the “ignored contender” in the contest to define Cuba's political future. Shunted aside in the wake of the...
